The cause of the war was slavery. We have liberated the slaves. It is our duty to protect them, and provide for them while they are unable to provide for themselves. None will deny the right to confiscate the property of the Southern states, as they all make war as the Confederate States of America. The bill provides that each freed slave who is a make adult, or the head of a family, will receive forty acres of lad (with $100 to build a house). Homesteads are far more valuable than the immediate right of suffrage, though they should receive both.

Four million people have just been freed from slavery. They have no education, have never worked for money, and don't know about their rights. We just make the freed slaves independent of their old masters, so that they may not be compelled to work for them upon unfair terms, which can only be done by giving them a small tract of land to farm.

Thaddeus Stevens, speech to Congress, March 19, 1867

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